Of Melting Pots and Salad Bowls

For at least one day each year, Americans give up their tacos, pizza, gyros, and chicken tikka for quintessentially-American turkey and dressing. At Thanksgiving, we give thanks for—among our many other blessings—the national unity we have, gathered around a table of diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. This past Thursday, we were not hyphenated Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Latino-Americans, African-Americans, Palestinian-Americans, or Jewish-Americans—just grateful Americans celebrating joyously, family by family.

As an immigrant nation (apart from Native Americans), we have woven—flaws and all—a rich national tapestry, at the center of which is a faith-based Judeo-Christian ethic. Despite much denigration of so-called “Christian nationalism,” we hold dear universal rights endowed by a divine Creator, reflected in our national motto: “In God We Trust.” Though initially referencing the Thirteen Colonies becoming one nation, the words on the Great Seal—“E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one)—aptly describes the assimilation of America’s “melting pot” in which diverse cultures have been melded together into a stronger alloy by their very blending.

Ironic in light of the tumultuous events of this past month, the term was popularized by the 1908 play, “Melting Pot,” written by Israel Zangwill, about a Jewish refugee finding love and acceptance when he immigrates to the U.S. to escape ethnic cleansing in Russia. Time was when our unlikely union was held together by a common respect for a Constitution guaranteeing rights and freedoms hitherto unknown, and the religious faith of our Founders. As those assumptions themselves have begun to melt away, the metaphor of a “melting pot” has gradually given way to something more akin to a loosely mixed “salad bowl,” with calls for “multiculturalism” in which unity is replaced by coexistence. No longer nationalism, but tribalism. “Out of one, many!”

For followers of Christ, the parallels are striking. Christendom itself has been divided into coexisting denominations—hardly what Jesus had in mind when he prayed that his followers would be one! Nor what Paul pictured (in Galatians 3:28) when he exclaimed that “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This oneness was quickly broken, especially between Jews and Gentiles. While acknowledging that there could be diversity of observance and conscience, Paul reminded them that their shared “one Lord, one faith, and one baptism” was the “melting pot” that melded them together.

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” asked the prophet Amos? With so many Americans no longer trusting in God, the reason our once-united “melting pot” has become a multicultural meltdown is clear: We no longer agree on the basics that once united us. Not even the cultural staple of marriage has escaped its own “multiculturalism”—the union of “two becoming one” giving way to easy divorce and the cheap coexistence of cohabitation. As goes culture, so goes the culture-driven church. Denominations themselves are no longer united. Even fellowships of autonomous congregations once bonded together by common scriptural assumptions have lost their shared identity. We’re all “salad,” tossed about by trendy doctrine.

Apart from remembering our blessings, Thanksgiving is about family and going home. Yet, not everyone is blessed with a home to return to—a reminder that, when our country or the church no longer feels like home, our one true home awaits. One family. One table. One forever feast!